By Tom Bandy
MissionInsite (and its parent company ACS Technologies) introduced a revised system in February that includes a number of new and useful features. Congregational, District, and Conference users will need to update their passwords and log in anew, but you will find your saved shapes and plots still in place. One goal for the update is to finally interface MissionInsite with other ACST platforms, notably with Realm church administration software. Some UMC congregations may use Realm and will find it easier to navigate back and forth.
For all practical purposes, there are three kinds of data categories. The demographic data now has the most recent information (including US Census). The American Beliefs Survey has been updated and expanded to reflect trends in social values, religious beliefs, church participation and more. The lifestyle (Mosaic) group and segment categories have not changed yet, but data has been nuanced to reflect behavioral shifts. All this will be incorporated into pre-defined reports.
The update simplifies some menus, expands the size of maps, enhances fonts and colors for easier reading, and speeds up data retrieval. For example, users once had to download reports one at a time but can now do multiple reports at the same time. You should also find it easier to upload and edit PeoplePlot information. And you can customize and add attributes to PeoplePlot to track additional aspects of congregational participation.
Here are some of the most interesting and useful new features in the menu to create Custom Reports, Thematic maps, and Opportunity Scans for any specified search area (“shape”).
Average Income Trends: Households and Per Capita
This choice is now added directly in the “Overview” menu so that you can quickly see and map population density for average household income, making it easier to compare community and church income potential. Use it alongside ComparativeInsite Reports.
Components of Change: Past 12 Months
This choice is back again, added to the “People” menu, and provides information about Net Migration in or out of any specified search area (plus birth and death trends). Previously this was only found in the old FullInsite Reports that were discontinued, but it is extremely helpful to track the mobility of people moving into or away from urban areas.
Population: Group Quarters
This new feature (with a rather odd name) is added to the “People” menu, and you can now track population density of “institutionalized” and “non-institutionalized” people (including residents in military or college institutions). This may be particularly helpful for chaplaincy ministries.
Population: Currently Enrolled in Education
In addition to other data related to education in the “People” menu, you can now track nursery school and preschool, kindergarten and elementary school, high school, and college/graduate/professional school enrollment. This makes it easier to distinguish preschool needs from early education needs.
Spending Patterns: Weekly Per Capital Consumer Expenses
This new feature at the bottom of the “People” menu allows you to see and track how much consumers in a specified search area are spending for apparel and related services, entertainment, health care, market basket (food), and transportation. This can nuance Mosaic lifestyle descriptions, and it can be used to establish benchmarks in stewardship programs to help church participants compare their priorities to the community.
Disposable and Discretionary Household Income
These categories now found under the “Household” menu add new insight alongside categories for poverty and wealth. “Disposable” income generally tracks potential for capital gain, while “discretionary” income generally tracks potential for extra spending (luxuries, charities, etc.).
Religious Affiliation
The list for affiliation under the “Diversity” menu has been updated to identify evangelical Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans and others separately from mainstream counterparts. Note especially that the category for “Nones” is not in this menu but can be found in the more detailed American Beliefs Study and/or ReligiousInsite reports.
Mortgage Risk: Filings by Risk Ratio
The breakdown of Mortgage Risk in the “Housing” menu is now easier to interpret and offers a more nuanced understanding of household debt. There is still no way to directly measure difficulty arranging mortgages (reflecting potential racial or ethnic bias), but this may help define neighborhoods in greater financial stress.
Landscape – Lifestyle
This “new” category is now in the “Diversity” menu and may be the most confusing for users. In fact, it is an “old” category that existed in a former iteration of the MI system. It resembles, but is not connected to, Mosaic lifestyle research from Experian. The latter is much more sophisticated. This menu might help regional planners understand the big picture.
Experian E-Handbook
Unfortunately, the Experian E-Handbook is no longer searchable directly from the MI website. Instead, you will see a link to MI Support for users to request access to it. Evidently this is a change required by Experian to protect their material. The good news is that you can get the entire E-Handbook as a larger PDF file. This makes it easier to see diversity and compare segments and groups.
MissionImpact Guide
The Guide continues to be accessible and searchable directly for MI users. So far, there are no significant updates to the Mosaic segments and groups. As always, you are encouraged to “reality test” my comments using local focus group, listening teams, and selected interviews with local agencies. Fortunately, key information from the E-Handbook is already included in the Guide. This includes bullet point Experian behavioral insights for each segment and group, along with technology and communication preferences.
The new, updated, MI system should be faster and easier to navigate. Moreover, data from all sources is now as up to date as possible – including the new research for the American Beliefs Survey. The system is better integrated into the various sources used for information, so that it should be more regularly and efficiently refreshed. Be sure to check out the many training videos on the MI website.